It is becoming more and more common for companies to set up new operations all over the world. Whether it’s a larger, public company opening new factories or a smaller business establishing a subsidiary, one important factor remains true – these new arms of business or sister companies must be integrated with headquarters as quickly as possible. Because IT integration is often too slow to happen or inconsistent, subsidiaries commonly feel disconnected from central company operations, and vice versa. These delays are counter-productive to the objectives of the subsidiary creation—achieving fast value and return on investment through new geographic and/or business services capabilities.

So how can they become and stay connected? The simple answer is SAP solutions – but, which ones? What data needs to be shared? How can subsidiaries become integrated?

Supporting a Subsidiary vs. Controlling It

When a company starts a new a business in a foreign country, managers at the headquarters are not able to steer the operations. Overall, they want to have some sort of control, but at the same time, they don’t want to give their colleagues the feeling that they are being controlled.

Most businesses would look to ERP to solve this problem. However, enhancing legacy software with mobile, analytics, and social apps can deliver more value to subsidiaries. SAP Business ByDesign is a perfect fit.

ByDesign is a revolutionary ERP Solution, allowing businesses to not only step up to the cloud, but utilize a modern application that includes dashboards and analytics, enterprise search, mashups from data providers like Google, integrated video eLearning, mobile access for iPads and more. In short, ByDesign is a modern ERP solution that acts as such, providing users the experience they are used to in their personal lives.

With Subsidiary Integration, Business ByDesign will support multiple integration points, allowing those customers to extend their SAP footprint at the subsidiary level. Sister companies can easily access ByDesign anywhere using a normal web browser internetand enjoy the same full support as the rest of their colleagues.

Using Mobility to Seamlessly Integrate

Another benefit is being able to use mobile phones to access data or use new apps. For example, most SAP ByDesign CRM apps allow users to see all of their customers and all the activities. If there is an action item or the user needs to contact the customer directly, they can make a call or complete the task in real time. Even the small daily items can be tracked, like a salesperson scanning a paper business card into their phone. Over the integration of Microsoft Exchange and optical character recognition, all the information on the business card can be transferred into Outlook and then into ByDesign. Just minutes later, other members of the sales force can see that new information listed on their phones. Simply put, Business ByDesign provides everything needed to do business. Managers know what the sales force is doing; the financial department knows what orders are being placed and processed; if there is a service unit of the business, managers can easily check in on repairs, materials, inventory levels, technical issues, etc.

Making Solutions Work Globally

With more tools, resources and solutions, subsidiaries feel supported. The benefits are obvious and they not only use the software, but rely on it to do business. With usage patterns increasing, the headquarters or parent company then knows more about operations through integrated reporting, data and a shared sense of accomplishment.

Whether a subsidiary has just been established or in operating for years, Business ByDesign software-as-a-service provides the right tools and methodologies to improve integration. itelligence helps companies implement these ideal solutions to provide comprehensive, integrated and configurable capabilities—truly helping businesses think locally and act globally. Is your business as integrated as it should be?